Ethiopia

Ethiopia officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the north-east. Ethiopia is one of the oldest countries in the world and Africa's second-most populous nation.

Unique among African countries, the ancient Ethiopian monarchy
maintained its freedom from colonial rule with the exception of a
short-lived Italian occupation from 1936-41. In 1974, a military junta,
the Derg, deposed Emperor Haile Selassie (who had ruled since 1930) and
established a socialist state. Torn by bloody coups, uprisings,
wide-scale drought, and massive refugee problems, the regime was finally
toppled in 1991 by a coalition of rebel forces, the Ethiopian People's
Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). A constitution was adopted in
1994, and Ethiopia's first multiparty elections were held in 1995. A
border war with Eritrea late in the 1990s ended with a peace treaty in
December 2000. In November 2007, the Eritrea-Ethiopia Border Commission
(EEBC) issued specific coordinates as virtually demarcating the border
and pronounced its work finished. Alleging that the EEBC acted beyond
its mandate in issuing the coordinates, Ethiopia has not accepted them
and has not withdrawn troops from previously contested areas pronounced
by the EEBC as belonging to Eritrea. In August 2012, longtime leader
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi died in office and was replaced by his
Deputy Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, marking the first peaceful
transition of power in decades.

Oromo (official working language in the State of Oromiya) 33.8%, Amharic
(official national language) 29.3%, Somali (official working language
of the State of Sumale) 6.2%, Tigrigna (Tigrinya) (official working
language of the State of Tigray) 5.9%, Sidamo 4%, Wolaytta 2.2%, Gurage
2%, Afar (official working language of the State of Afar) 1.7%, Hadiyya
1.7%, Gamo 1.5%, Gedeo 1.3%, Opuuo 1.2%, Kafa 1.1%, other 8.1%, English
(major foreign language taught in schools), Arabic

Overview: Ethiopia's economy is based on agriculture but the government is pushing
to diversify into manufacturing, textiles, and energy generation..
Coffee is a major export crop. The agricultural sector suffers from poor
cultivation practices and frequent drought, but recent joint efforts by
the Government of Ethiopia and donors have strengthened Ethiopia's
agricultural resilience, contributing to a reduction in the number of
Ethiopians threatened with starvation. The banking, insurance,
telecommunications, and micro-credit industries are restricted to
domestic investors, but Ethiopia has attracted significant foreign
investment in textiles, leather, commercial agriculture and
manufacturing. Under Ethiopia's constitution, the state owns all land
and provides long-term leases to the tenants; land use certificates are
now being issued in some areas so that tenants have more recognizable
rights to continued occupancy and hence make more concerted efforts to
improve their leaseholds. While GDP growth has remained high, per capita
income is among the lowest in the world. Ethiopia's economy continues
on its state-led Growth and Transformation Plan under the new collective
leadership that followed Prime Minister Meles's death. The five-year
economic plan has achieved high single-digit growth rates through
government-led infrastructure expansion and commercial agriculture
development. Ethiopia in 2014 will continue construction of its Grand
Renaissance Dam on the Nile – a controversial five billion dollar effort
to develop electricity for domestic consumption and export.

international disputes: Eritrea and Ethiopia agreed to abide by the 2002 Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission's (EEBC) delimitation decision, but neither party responded to the revised line detailed in the November 2006 EEBC Demarcation Statement; the undemarcated former British administrative line has little meaning as a political separation to rival clans within Ethiopia's Ogaden and southern Somalia's Oromo region; Ethiopian forces invaded southern Somalia and routed Islamist Courts from Mogadishu in January 2007; "Somaliland" secessionists provide port facilities in Berbera and trade ties to landlocked Ethiopia; civil unrest in eastern Sudan has hampered efforts to demarcate the porous boundary with Ethiopia

internally displaced persons: 316,000
(border war with Eritrea from 1998-2000; ethnic clashes; and ongoing
fighting between the Ethiopian military and separatist rebel groups in
the Sumale and Oromiya regions; natural disasters; most IDPs live in
Sumale state)

illicit drugs: transit hub for heroin originating in Southwest and Southeast Asia and
destined for Europe, as well as cocaine destined for markets in southern
Africa; cultivates qat (khat) for local use and regional export,
principally to Djibouti and Somalia (legal in all three countries); the
lack of a well-developed financial system limits the country's utility
as a money laundering center